News Archive for February 24, 2011

Google Inc., taking aim at Microsoft Corp.'s lucrative Office franchise, plans to release a free tool allowing users to transfer files from the widely used software suite to the Web so that multiple people can edit and collaborate on them.

NEW YORK—E*Trade Financial Corp. said Citadel LLC, its largest shareholder and bondholder, plans to sell at least 24 million of the hedge fund's shares in the online brokerage, or the majority of its equity stake in the company.

TORONTO—Ontario's financial and political elite are quietly airing concerns over the proposed takeover of Toronto's bourse by its London cousin—signaling the deal could face a long and potentially rocky road to regulatory approval.

Rhonda Kimmel's 11-year-old West Highland terrier, Maxx, goes with her everywhere—to the mall, restaurants and even to the bank.What gives Maxx entree to places normally off-limits to canines and other animals is the embroidered, ...

Two of the biggest names in the investing world are teaming up to wager on clean energy.George Soros's Soros Fund Management LLC and private-equity firm Silver Lake are starting Silver Lake Kraftwerk, which will invest in growing ...

Approximately 372,000 2004 through 2006 and early 2007 RX 330, RX 350, and RX 400h vehicles were recalled in February 2011 to replace the driver's side floormat and its two retention clips. In June 2012, Toyota expanded the recall to ...

TOYOTA CITY, Japan—One year after a bruising series of recalls, Toyota Motor Corp. has quietly implemented a number of new quality and safety-related reforms to its operations, even as it denies its vehicles are prone to defective parts or ...

Gap Inc. squeezed higher profits from an uptick in revenue, after ending 2010 with an uneven holiday season. Flashes of strength, such as on Black Friday, were more than offset by a significant drop in traffic at the San Francisco ...

Roche Holding AG said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted the drug maker a hearing to defend the cancer treatment Avastin amid increased regulatory scrutiny of the drug's effectiveness in breast cancer.

A boilerplate note on the website of the Service Employees International Union informs us that "SEIU welcomes civil discussion about Richard Negri's article Dropkick Murphys release new song in support of Wisconsin workers!"

PARIS—France Télécom SA let profit margins slip at home last year in an attempt to protect market share as competition in Europe's second-largest telecommunications market heated up with the imminent arrival of a new cell phone ...

A High Court judge in the U.K. has decided to hear a legal challenge by environmental group Greenpeace to the British government's decision to allow new deepwater drilling in British waters, potentially hampering efforts by ...

Horizon Lines Inc. agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to fix rates for marine freight transportation over a six-year period and will pay a $45 million fine, according to the Department of Justice.

Dutch upgrade: There's encouraging news for business travelers flying in and out of the Netherlands. Dutch airline KLM plans to improve its European business class by no longer selling the middle seat, providing better food and drinks ...

WASHINGTON—The Commodity Futures Trading Commission sought to spell out which trading practices it would consider disruptive as it seeks to exert its new authority under the Dodd-Frank law to go after traders who intentionally roil the ...

House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) has issued his first subpoenas to the Obama administration, seeking testimony from two Department of Homeland Security employees about their handling of freedom-of-information requests, ...

TEXAS CITY, Texas—A refined-products pipeline leaked 6,000 barrels of gasoline into a Texas City neighborhood, causing the evacuation of 30 homes early Thursday and a shut down of the pipeline, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

NEW YORK—Oil has always been a wild card for stocks, and its rise to $100 a barrel for the first time since 2008 has investors worried about the nearly uninterrupted run of bullish trading since the autumn.

American International Group Inc.'s financial performance has been an anomaly in the insurance sector over the past few years, and its fourth-quarter results released later today will again buck the industry trend.

Whether ObamaCare is declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court may come down in large part to how that body interprets the power of Congress to regulate economic activity under the Commerce Clause.

Canada's bank earnings season opened to a solid start Thursday after Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and smaller rival National Bank of Canada handily beat analysts' earnings expectations in their fiscal first quarter, as ...

NEW YORK—E*Trade Financial Corp. reported higher trading volumes for the first three weeks of February, but disclosed a sharp rise in so-called special-mention delinquencies within its bank's home-equity portfolio.

WASHINGTON—White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Austan Goolsbee said Thursday he was optimistic lawmakers would work out a deal by the end of next week to continue funding government operations, even though both sides are being ...

Until the middle of 2010, things couldn't have been going better for India. The economy had navigated the global crisis largely unscathed, and the last few quarters had seen growth clocking 9%. Foreigners voted in India's favor ...

LONDON—British American Tobacco PLC, the world's second-biggest tobacco group by revenue, Thursday posted a rise in full-year profit on higher sales, boosted by growing demand in its emerging markets, but volumes fell as smokers ...

Kohl's Corp.'s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings rose 14% and the board authorized the first dividend in the company's history. But the department-store operator projected 2011 earnings that were below what Wall Street has been ...

E.W. Scripps Co.'s fourth-quarter earnings more than doubled thanks to televised political ads. The media company's print business advertising continues to decline, but dollars are flowing back into its television-station ...

NEW YORK—Treasurys gained Thursday, continuing to benefit from a safe-harbor bid stoked by tensions roiling the Middle East region. Treasurys held onto those gains after an average 7-year auction, in which Treasury sold $29 billion in 7-year ...

NEW YORK—Gold's rally slowed as investors scrutinized the economic risks of an unstable Middle East and higher oil prices. The February-delivery contract settled up 0.1%, or $1.90, at $1,415.30 per troy ounce. The most actively traded ...

HONG KONG—An American woman accused of murdering her investment-banker husband in Hong Kong in 2003 testified Thusday that she had attempted suicide while struggling to cope with depression and her husband's cocaine-fueled aggression.

LONDON—European countries that import oil from Libya remained calm Thursday and held back from releasing emergency petroleum stocks to domestic consumers, even as it emerged that 75% of the North African country's oil production may ...

ISTANBUL—Shares in Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS, Turkey's largest cellphone operator, fell more than 11% Thursday, hit by worse-than-expected fourth-quarter results and market-wide concerns over fallout from the turmoil in Libya.

NEW YORK—Stocks extended their losses to a third straight session Thursday as investors continued to fret over turmoil in Libya and how the resulting surge in oil prices might impact the U.S. economic recovery.

LONDON—Euro-zone economic confidence has recovered to levels seen some three-and-a-half years ago when the currency area was beginning to feel the impact of the credit crisis that dragged the region into a deep and prolonged recession, ...

HONG KONG—Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, a unit of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., has set an indicative yield of 5%-6% for its near $6 billion initial public offering in Singapore in the next few weeks, a person familiar with the situation said ...

There was a time, back in the mid-20th century, when Guangzhou, the southern Chinese city, was the only place foreigners could do business. But in recent decades, in the wake of the country's economic boom, the southern Chinese city ...

TOKYO—Honda Motor Co., buoyed by higher demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles as oil prices rise, is on track to surpass its target for 10% U.S. unit sales gains in the coming fiscal year, the company's leader said Thursday.

BANGALORE – Infosys Technologies Ltd. is looking to spend up to $200 million to acquire companies in the U.S. in its bid to secure large government contracts, its chief financial officer said, as the Indian technology firm looks to boost ...

MADRID—Spain's Iberdrola SA Thursday said its fourth-quarter net profit rose 0.8% from a year earlier on higher power generation in Spain and bigger profits at the power utility's international operations.

TAIPEI—Wintek Corp., a supplier of touch screens to Apple Inc., Thursday said it made provisions of 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) in 2010 for compensation to workers affected by chemical poisoning at its plant in eastern China in 2009.

ESSEN, Germany—RWE AG said Thursday its 2010 net profit fell 7%, and significantly lowered its earnings forecasts for coming years due to a new nuclear tax in Germany, low power-generation margins and full auctioning of carbon-dioxide ...

European stocks fell for the fifth consecutive session Thursday, with German stocks leading declines as RWE and Allianz fell after releasing earnings and Porsche Automobil Holding SE tumbled 11% on worries that its deal with Volkswagen will ...

LONDON—Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC is unlikely to fully shake state support for at least several years, Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hester said, even though improved performances by most of its major units resulted in a narrower ...

SYDNEY—Investment in Australia's mining and energy sector is expected to grow by almost a third this year, according to a new government report, and the forecast sent the Australian dollar up sharply in Thursday trading.

FRANKFURT—Exports continued to drive the German economy's growth in the final quarter of last year, as the early onset of winter hit domestic consumption and construction, the Federal Statistics Office Destatis reported Thursday.

FRANKFURT—Chemicals giant BASF SE said Thursday it would continue to raise prices to counteract rising raw-material costs this year after the company reported a jump in profits and revenues in the fourth quarter of 2010 amid rising demand ...

SYDNEY—Seeking to prevent delays on a US$35 billion natural-gas project, the Australian partner of ConocoPhillips said it will allow the U.S. oil company to defer a major milestone payment tied to the venture.

HONG KONG—Guoco Group Ltd. said its decision to boost its stake in Bank of East Asia Ltd. to more than 10% doesn;t signal that it intends to take over blue-chip lender and reiterated the stake is just one of its major investments.

On the face of it, our country seems to be doing a good job of collecting direct taxes. Net direct tax collected between April 2010 and January totaled $71 billion, a 20% jump over the same period the previous year, according to the Central ...

India has implemented several programs in recent years to improve the health of its people, and this year's budget is likely to channel more funding their way in an effort to build on the progress made, spread development more evenly ...

BEIJING—The new chief executive of Alibaba.com Ltd. urged employees to "forge ahead" following the fraud scandal that prompted his predecessor's resignation but said he needs time to map out the company's future.

U .S. oil prices settled 2.8% higher at $98.10 a barrel after touching $100 and European crude rose to $111.25 as Libyan fighting spread. Share prices around the globe fell as the spike in oil continued to dim the outlook for stocks. The ...

Libya's Gadhafi clung to power as rebels made gains. Forces loyal to the strongman imposed order in Tripoli, even as more territory slipped from his control elsewhere and the international community weighed sanctions. The U.S. and ...

Leila Chirayath Janah has become something of a staple on "women to watch" lists in Silicon Valley. Ms. Janah, 28 years old, is the founder and chief executive of Samasource, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that creates outsourcing ...

As a way to drive more interest to Silly Bandz, those rubber bands that were such a hit last summer with kids and fashionistas, the line has recently debuted ones inspired by reality television stars the Kardashians.

In 2004, Zhang Gongli began a legal battle to rid his community of pollution caused by a nearby pesticides plant. The farmer's once-idyllic village of Qiugang in China's eastern Anhui province had become choked with toxic waste: ...

A Feb. 17 U.S. News article about the federal government's audit of companies' employment records quoted Julie Myers Wood, a former head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who currently advises businesses on immigration ...

Japan could do with a little inflation. At home at least. The nation's companies aren't alone in facing rising input prices. With the price of crude oil, food, iron ore and textiles rising globally, the cost of imports jumped 4.7% ...

MANAMA, Bahrain—Bahrain freed 308 political prisoners Wednesday and pardoned two other men who have been in self-imposed exile, as opposition groups outlined a series of potential demands that included the introduction of a constitutional ...

Historians have often speculated that the earliest wines were Middle Eastern in origin. Archaeological discoveries in Egypt—text from tombs and chemicals in ceramic jars— suggest wine was around as early as 5000 B.C., and similar evidence ...

Q: I am looking for a clutch or envelope-shape bag that would go with summer dresses that I wear with cork heels, brown slingbacks and cream shoes. I was wondering if python or snakeskin handbags would be too heavy for warm weather?

(Please see Corrections and Amplifications below.) MEXICO CITY—The Mexican army detained nine people Wednesday in the killing of a U.S. agent last week, and said the shooting appears to have been a case of mistaken identity by drug hitmen.

RIYADH—Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah returned to the kingdom Wednesday after a three-month absence for medical treatment and introduced a number of nonpolitical reforms amid regional uprisings that have toppled regimes in Tunisia and ...

In a pastry kitchen, water is often seen as the enemy of chocolate. When tempering chocolate – a process when melted chocolate is agitated to form the right crystal structure so it dries with a glossy finish and a hard snap – just one drop ...

CARLOW, Ireland—The people of Ireland go to the polls Friday to deliver what's expected to be a knock-out blow to the governing party. But many are choosing to vote in a traditional Irish fashion: with their feet. Tens of thousands are ...

KKR & Co. Firm Returns to Profit On Gains in Investments Private-equity firm KKR & Co. swung to a fourth-quarter profit of $180.6 million on investment gains and the lack of a year-earlier compensation charge.

President Barack Obama, after initially lending his support to organized labor, has stepped back from the fights spreading in state capitals from Wisconsin to Tennessee, leaving union officials divided about his tactics.

Dwight Hardy continued his scoring streak with 21 points and St. John's, playing as a ranked team for the first time in more than 10 years, dominated DePaul throughout in a victory Wednesday night at Carnesecca Arena.

Forget tea leaves: Wall Street is turning to Ayn Rand for guidance. Hedge-fund manager Barry Colvin has raised $60,000 to start a Greater New York outpost of the Ayn Rand Institute, the first chapter in the country for the Irvine, ...

The American modern dance of Martha Graham—sometimes known as "Mirthless Martha"—and her generation had little to do with laughter. Choreographer Paul Taylor, however, who gained early prominence as a Graham dancer—performing such ...

SEOUL—A key index measuring consumer confidence in South Korea fell for the third straight month to hit a 21-month low in February, a Bank of Korea survey showed Thursday, bolstering views that the domestic economy's recovery is ...

WASHINGTON—Nearly 12% of U.S. banks remain at risk of failure even as the industry completed its first profitable year since 2007, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in its quarterly report on the banking industry.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday moved to quash speculation that its top lawyer decided to step down because he is being sued as part of a "clawback" lawsuit by the trustee seeking to recover assets on behalf of ...

Mergers and acquisitions activity in the mining and metals sector will stay strong in 2011 due to emerging market demand for raw materials and better access to capital, an Ernst & Young report said Wednesday.

The Speaker of Indiana's House of Representatives said he and Republican colleagues were dropping a controversial labor bill that caused Democratic representatives to flee to Illinois. But Democratic lawmakers said they were not ...

Airlines notched their lowest global rate for major accidents ever last year, even as the industry's biggest international trade group prepares to launch a new safety campaign focused on identifying potential maintenance lapses.

After months of speculation, the tablet wars begin in earnest this week. Motorola is releasing its Xoom tablet on Feb. 24, and I consider it the first truly comparable competitor to Apple's hit iPad. That is partly because it is the ...

As the Meatpacking District club approaches its fifth anniversary in September, this weekend, Tenjune, on Little West 12th Street, will unveil a $400,000 facelift. The culmination will be a live performance Saturday by the rapper Fabolous.

SAN FRANCISCO—Priceline.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeffery Boyd on Wednesday predicted the airline booking sector will operate as a "mixed market" going forward, with middlemen using different technologies to link carriers with ...

New York lawmakers Wednesday criticized the city's plan to remove PCB-contaminated lights from public schools over a 10-year period, saying it is insufficient to address what they call a serious health risk to children.

The Oscars are counting on younger hosts, a big slate of Best Picture nominees and a bigger online presence to attract young viewers and top the size of last year's audience—the show's biggest in several years.

WASHINGTON—A second suspected nuclear installation has been identified in Syria, according to commercial satellite photos, providing new evidence that Damascus may have been pursuing atomic weapons before a 2007 Israeli military strike.

Sen. Charles Schumer plans to introduce legislation aimed at forcing states to report in greater numbers those who are supposed to be legally barred from buying guns, as well as at "ending the gun-show loophole."

Severely Damaged: The Cinema of Kim Ji-woon BAMcinématek 30 Layfayette Ave., Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100 Friday-Wednesday Korean film has a reputation for maniacal violence. The bloody hammer is practically a trope. It was fetishized in Park ...

WASHINGTON—The government of Col. Moammar Gadhafi hasn't destroyed significant stockpiles of mustard gas and other chemical-weapons agents, raising fears in Washington about what could happen to them—and whether they may be used—as ...

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels did himself no favors with many conservatives yesterday in his response to a walk-out by Indiana state legislators protesting action on a right-to-work bill. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie may be facing down ...

Trouble in Middle East Heavy gunfire broke out in Libya's capital of Tripoli as forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi opened fire in the streets a day after the leader called on supporters to crack down on protesters.

The Greenwich Village institution, Fedora, changed hands last summer when the beloved original owner Fedora Dorato retired and restaurateur Gabriel Stulman, of other Village hotspots Joseph Leonard and Jeffrey's Grocery, took over the ...

When Ithaca College student Tracey Casseus was planning her long weekend in New York City recently, she checked a few websites and settled on a day of art exhibits at the Brooklyn Museum, where she saw two shows last Saturday for her $6 ...

The Obama administration is trying to push through a settlement over mortgage-servicing breakdowns that could force America's largest banks to pay for reductions in loan principal worth billions of dollars.

Leaders of major public and private sector unions have agreed to set aside longstanding divisions and turf battles and coordinate in a campaign to counter challenges to their political and contract-bargaining power in a growing number of ...

The Nets' trade for All-Star point guard Deron Williams on Wednesday, just hours before the new Knick Carmelo Anthony was due to hold his first press conference, could hardly be considered a coincidence.

Our question is: What took so long? We're referring to the latest oil market panic, as prices for U.S. crude hit $100 a barrel yesterday (European crude hit $111) and gasoline nears $4 a gallon in parts of California. This oil trouble ...

WASHINGTON—Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday said the Obama administration was hoping for a bipartisan deal to reduce budget deficits over the next five years or so, but stopped short of predicting an agreement could be ...

Oil prices are rising. Food prices are up. The world economy is gaining momentum. Central banks, still fighting aftereffects of the financial crisis, are keeping interest rates low. Is an outbreak of U.S. inflation around the corner?

If you've ever had the dubious pleasure of being a monthly customer at a New York City parking garage, you're probably aware that the price—approximately that of a roomy one-bedroom in any other metropolitan area—is only the ...

On Capitol Hill last week, federal banking regulators suggested that the government may soon reach a comprehensive settlement with banks on foreclosure procedures and servicing. In theory such a settlement could unlock housing markets and ...

In a major decision issued last week, William Chandler of Delaware's Court of Chancery ruled that corporate boards may use a "poison pill"—a device designed to block shareholders from considering a takeover bid—for as long a ...

During the past eight days, thousands of Wisconsin teachers walked out of classrooms, shutting down schools. Tens of thousands of public employees staged an apparent wildcat strike, flooding Wisconsin's state capital in a ...

The psychoanalyst Erik Erikson once observed that as soon as boys recognize that they have behinds, they become infinitely interested in the question of who can kick whose butt. Judging from Andre Dubus III's gritty memoir, ...

What happens when you ask nine economists their opinion? You get 10 answers. It's an old joke, but the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee seems determined to prove it true. At its February meeting, one of its nine members ...

After a year of relative calm in the oil markets—prices ranged mostly between $70 and $85—producers, traders and consumers scrambled to assess the impact of the unfolding Middle East turmoil. Reports on the effects on Libyan production have ...

It's been a hard winter in North Korea, and the Kim family regime is once again struggling to feed its people. So the usual cycle has recommenced: The regime has put out the begging bowl, NGOs are painting a grim picture, the World ...

Remember the BP oil spill and its aftermath? Folks remember it on the Gulf Coast, where late last week a federal judge ruled that the Obama Administration is imposing a de facto ban on deep water drilling that is "unreasonable, ...

WASHINGTON—The House Energy and Commerce Committee is conducting a formal investigation into the contaminated-heparin crisis of 2008, saying it wants regulators to figure out who was responsible for adulteration linked to 81 U.S. deaths.

Google Inc. is penalizing Overstock.com Inc. in its search results after the retailer ran afoul of Google policies that prohibit companies from artificially boosting their ranking in the Internet giant's search engine.

So Derek Jeter has apparently run afoul of another one of his gabby Yankee bosses, Hank Steinbrenner—not for an incendiary comment or an off-field indiscretion (never that!), but for...building a house.

ABUJA, Nigeria—Nigeria has spent more than $27 billion from its oil-windfall savings account in three years, significantly eroding the total and putting the financial health of Africa's most populous country and biggest oil producer ...

Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks newest star, ended months of hysteria a little after 5 p.m. on Wednesday, strolling into a room inside Madison Square Garden wearing an orange and blue warmup suit. He is a Knick and with 28 games to go in the ...

WASHINGTON—The U.S. charged four former Credit Suisse AG bankers Wednesday with helping wealthy U.S. citizens evade taxes, opening a new front in its multi-year battle with Swiss banks over secret accounts.

The Yankees presumed regular catcher Russell Martin still isn't ready to take the field, as his surgically repaired knee will likely keep him idle for the Yankee Grapefruit League opener against Philadelphia on Saturday. But the man he ...

As pitcher Mark Prior works his way towards an unlikely comeback, he's often asked, by potential employers and casual observers alike, what he's got left in that arm after two shoulder surgeries, a broken elbow and a resume that ...

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla.—The gloves are stacked on the top shelf of Daniel Murphy's locker, each of them representing a task unfinished. The big one, 12 1/2 inches long, is for first base. There's a glove for second base, 11 1/2 ...

After months of hype, drama and, well, confusion surrounding former Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony, the Nets took their trade chips elsewhere on Tuesday and quickly struck a deal to bring a different All-Star to New Jersey, Jazz point guard ...

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand—Rescue workers and volunteers intensified the search for an estimated 300 people who remain unaccounted for in the rubble of buildings destroyed in an earthquake, as police enforced a curfew to stop looting.

The Obama administration said Wednesday it believed a federal law defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman violated the Constitution, in a major reversal that could stand as a landmark in changing U.S. attitudes toward gay ...

Closing schools. Laying off teachers. Taking away the option of riding yellow school buses for children who live close enough to walk. Those are some of the more drastic options New Jersey school districts were considering but have now ...

(Please see Corrections and Amplifications below.) During the typical baseball offseason, more than 100 players change cities, sparking a complicated dance that generates endless debate about who cleaned up and who flopped.

France rugby union coach Marc Lièvremont threw the first barb ahead of Saturday's tournament-defining Six Nations fixture against England. "We don't like the English," he told a news conference this week.

In the two years since President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law, some small-business owners attribute their companies' survival to the stimulus package—yet many say the provisions in the ...

As Congress begins to take up the Obama administration's defense budget, one item not even under discussion needs to be considered. Events of the past 18 months have made clear that it's time to rethink the fate of the F-22 ...

A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S said Wednesday that it returned to a profit in 2010 amid streamlined costs and a rebound in the container-shipping industry, but the Copenhagen-based company added that earnings are expected to shrink this year as it ...

Harvard political scientist Stephen Walt, co-author of "The Israel Lobby," writing for Foreign Policy magazine, Jan. 19, 2010: Although Libya is far from a democracy, it also doesn't feel like other police states that I have ...

In 1999, I co-authored a book called "Dow 36,000" that became, in some circles, a notorious symbol for bullishness about the stock market. While the book had a provocative title, its fundamental message was mainstream: Long-term ...

CAIRO—As hopes rise for Egypt's first elections, political parties are sprouting like weeds. Activists, businessmen and community leaders are all forming new parties they hope will widen Egypt's limited menu of political options.

Citi has unveiled what it dubs the 3G countries: Global Growth Generators. The 11 countries it picks out as leading lights are Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Mongolia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. And ...

One easy fix for busted state budgets: Collect more from Internet shoppers. Long before the Web took off, a 1992 Supreme Court ruling involving a catalog mail-order company exempted retailers from collecting sales taxes in states where they ...

Leaders across the country are proposing restrictions on public employees' pay and benefits in order to put their budgets on a more sustainable path. The political left's counterattack is that government workers aren't ...

NEW YORK—E*Trade Financial Corp. said late Tuesday it received a Wells notice from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority related to the purchase of auction-rate securities by customers of one of its subsidiaries, according to a ...

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has spent tens of billions of dollars on railroads, machine tools and utility companies in recent years. But Mr. Buffett's 2010 annual letter, to be released Saturday, is likely to ...

New York area home prices have held up better than most other major metropolitan areas, with wealthy commuting suburbs providing the bulk of recovery while towns farther from the city have lagged, brokers and analysts said.

Political upheaval in the Middle East and shaky economic growth elsewhere have U.S. crude-oil prices suddenly advancing on $100 a barrel. Such chaos can play havoc with the bottom lines of many producers' and refiners' bottom ...

WASHINGTON—The Environmental Protection Agency relaxed its proposed rules for cutting pollution from industrial boilers used at oil refineries, chemical plants, paper mills and other factories, responding to an outcry from a wide range of ...

LONDON—In the shadow of West London's urban sprawl, two school kids hit a soft, bright blue rubber ball against a wall. They are playing a court game known as one-wall handball, a derivation of fives, one of the world's oldest ...

Global food prices hardly need another reason to rise. But talk that China may have to increase wheat imports again this year due to poor harvests has added to market jitters, with wheat prices this month around 2½-year highs. Like so many ...

For a lesson in globalization, consider the link between a tank in Libya and the tank in your car. If Libya's descent into violence proves lasting, or spreads, this week's increase in crude-oil prices could transform into an oil ...

NEW DELHI—India's Central Bureau of Investigation arrested two top officials involved in organizing last year's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, in the government's most serious move yet as it probes allegations of corruption ...

Venture-capital investment in Silicon Valley companies rose robustly in 2010, but not all sectors benefited. While overall venture investment in Bay Area start-ups rose 12% to $9.5 billion last year from $8.5 billion in 2009, certain ...

A federal appeals court handed a significant legal victory to Abbott Laboratories, overturning a jury verdict that would have forced the drug maker to pay $1.8 billion to Johnson & Johnson for violating a patent in developing its ...

As mayor of San Jose, Chuck Reed has spent the past few years slashing spending to contend with lower tax revenue and ballooning costs in the Bay Area's most populous city. This year promises more of the same.

Ivanhoe Nickel & Platinum Ltd., the mining company known as Ivanplats, plans to go public this year in an offering that could raise between $750 million and $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said.

Lowe's Cos. has become the world's second-largest home-improvement chain with the help of a decade of strategic mistakes by its larger archrival, Home Depot Inc. But with a resurgent Home Depot, Lowe's faces a stiff challenge ...

BEIJING—An anonymous online statement claiming to be from the organizers of a failed weekend attempt to spark a Chinese "Jasmine Revolution" has urged people to gather at designated sites every Sunday afternoon.

The speaker of Indiana's House of Representatives said he and Republican colleagues are dropping a controversial labor bill that caused Democratic representatives to flee to Illinois, but the Democrats said they're not returning ...

MENLO PARK—Facebook Inc. has decided to move its headquarters from Palo Alto to Menlo Park. Now it has to win over its new neighbors, many of whom welcome the company's initial efforts to engage the community even as they wonder how ...

One of the hottest fashion sensations on the runway this spring? A new design from that house of aluminum couture, Boeing Co. The giant airplane maker has come up with a new interior for its 737 model, the workhorse of airlines around the ...

The reviving Bay Area economy is spurring national retailers to open more stores in the region, lowering the vacancy rate in area shopping centers to 6.8% in 2010 from 7.6% a year earlier, according to data from Cassidy Turley/BT ...

Luxury builder Toll Brothers Inc. swung to a surprise first-quarter profit, aided by a home-price increase and a low cancellation rate. The results are a bright spot for a battered industry struggling to sell homes. But headwinds remain: ...

General Electric Co. and Siemens AG are preparing to release their own lines of electric-car charging stations, injecting big-name competition into a nascent business now dominated by little known start-ups.

Investors are eager to hear about household-product makers' plans for cleaning house. Thursday, chief executives from the industry's biggest players will begin two days of investor presentations at an annual conference in Boca ...

San Francisco Since the arrival of container ships in the 1960s, with their need for giant cranes and open acres of wharfage, the 43 deepwater "finger piers" of San Francisco's northeastern waterfront have largely become an ...

Dutch violinist Janine Jansen's career kicked into high gear in 2005, after her vibrant chamber-scaled version of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" became one of the first classical hits on iTunes. Several years of busy ...

Business & Finance Morgan Stanley is selling China's Shanghai Motel chain, which could fetch up to $1 billion, as foreign and local hoteliers scramble to buy into the country's travel boom. Potential suitors for Shanghai Motel, ...

The Bank of Spain didn't exactly bare all this week, but its report on Spain's cajas was the best peek we've had yet inside these troubled savings banks. The cajas account for 42% of the country's total banking assets, ...

Earlier this week, in a Wall Street Journal interview about investing in Russia, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin surprised me. He cited my experience in Russia as an example of the strength of the Russian investment climate. Mr. ...

Mark Hurd couldn't have timed his exit from Hewlett-Packard any better had he planned it. Hailed as the rescuer of H-P's once-moribund stock, the course charted by Mr. Hurd appears, in the fullness of time, to have led H-P back ...

Cesare Geronzi was a controversial choice to become chairman of Italian insurance company Assicurazioni Generali. The 76-year-old power broker was appointed despite the private opposition of senior management and public concerns over an ...

For a glimpse of the complex undercurrents that shape U.S.-India relations, look at the drama unfolding in a sleepy corner of California. In the San Francisco suburb of Pleasanton, about 1,500 students, the vast majority of them from the ...

Amid the hubbub surrounding a bevy of proposed trans-Atlantic stock exchange mergers, a faint Antipodean wail reminds that another tie-up also is in the works, and it's not going so well. Executives at Singapore Exchange Ltd. (SGX) and ...

LONDON—In the shadow of West London's urban sprawl, two school kids hit a soft, bright blue rubber ball against a wall. They are playing a court game known as one-wall handball, a derivation of fives, one of the world's oldest ...

Global food prices hardly need another reason to rise. But talk that China may have to increase wheat imports again this year due to poor harvests has added to market jitters, with wheat prices this month around 2½-year highs. Like so many ...

For a lesson in globalization, consider the link between a tank in Libya and the tank in your car. If Libya's descent into violence proves lasting, or spreads, this week's increase in crude-oil prices could transform into an oil ...

NEW DELHI—India's Central Bureau of Investigation arrested two top officials involved in organizing last year's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, in the government's most serious move yet as it probes allegations of corruption ...

Venture-capital investment in Silicon Valley companies rose robustly in 2010, but not all sectors benefited. While overall venture investment in Bay Area start-ups rose 12% to $9.5 billion last year from $8.5 billion in 2009, certain ...

A federal appeals court handed a significant legal victory to Abbott Laboratories, overturning a jury verdict that would have forced the drug maker to pay $1.8 billion to Johnson & Johnson for violating a patent in developing its ...

As mayor of San Jose, Chuck Reed has spent the past few years slashing spending to contend with lower tax revenue and ballooning costs in the Bay Area's most populous city. This year promises more of the same.

Ivanhoe Nickel & Platinum Ltd., the mining company known as Ivanplats, plans to go public this year in an offering that could raise between $750 million and $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said.

Lowe's Cos. has become the world's second-largest home-improvement chain with the help of a decade of strategic mistakes by its larger archrival, Home Depot Inc. But with a resurgent Home Depot, Lowe's faces a stiff challenge ...

BEIJING—An anonymous online statement claiming to be from the organizers of a failed weekend attempt to spark a Chinese "Jasmine Revolution" has urged people to gather at designated sites every Sunday afternoon.

The speaker of Indiana's House of Representatives said he and Republican colleagues are dropping a controversial labor bill that caused Democratic representatives to flee to Illinois, but the Democrats said they're not returning ...

MENLO PARK—Facebook Inc. has decided to move its headquarters from Palo Alto to Menlo Park. Now it has to win over its new neighbors, many of whom welcome the company's initial efforts to engage the community even as they wonder how ...

One of the hottest fashion sensations on the runway this spring? A new design from that house of aluminum couture, Boeing Co. The giant airplane maker has come up with a new interior for its 737 model, the workhorse of airlines around the ...

The reviving Bay Area economy is spurring national retailers to open more stores in the region, lowering the vacancy rate in area shopping centers to 6.8% in 2010 from 7.6% a year earlier, according to data from Cassidy Turley/BT ...

Luxury builder Toll Brothers Inc. swung to a surprise first-quarter profit, aided by a home-price increase and a low cancellation rate. The results are a bright spot for a battered industry struggling to sell homes. But headwinds remain: ...

General Electric Co. and Siemens AG are preparing to release their own lines of electric-car charging stations, injecting big-name competition into a nascent business now dominated by little known start-ups.

Investors are eager to hear about household-product makers' plans for cleaning house. Thursday, chief executives from the industry's biggest players will begin two days of investor presentations at an annual conference in Boca ...

San Francisco Since the arrival of container ships in the 1960s, with their need for giant cranes and open acres of wharfage, the 43 deepwater "finger piers" of San Francisco's northeastern waterfront have largely become an ...

Dutch violinist Janine Jansen's career kicked into high gear in 2005, after her vibrant chamber-scaled version of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" became one of the first classical hits on iTunes. Several years of busy ...

Business & Finance Morgan Stanley is selling China's Shanghai Motel chain, which could fetch up to $1 billion, as foreign and local hoteliers scramble to buy into the country's travel boom. Potential suitors for Shanghai Motel, ...

The Bank of Spain didn't exactly bare all this week, but its report on Spain's cajas was the best peek we've had yet inside these troubled savings banks. The cajas account for 42% of the country's total banking assets, ...

Earlier this week, in a Wall Street Journal interview about investing in Russia, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin surprised me. He cited my experience in Russia as an example of the strength of the Russian investment climate. Mr. ...

Mark Hurd couldn't have timed his exit from Hewlett-Packard any better had he planned it. Hailed as the rescuer of H-P's once-moribund stock, the course charted by Mr. Hurd appears, in the fullness of time, to have led H-P back ...

Cesare Geronzi was a controversial choice to become chairman of Italian insurance company Assicurazioni Generali. The 76-year-old power broker was appointed despite the private opposition of senior management and public concerns over an ...

For a glimpse of the complex undercurrents that shape U.S.-India relations, look at the drama unfolding in a sleepy corner of California. In the San Francisco suburb of Pleasanton, about 1,500 students, the vast majority of them from the ...

Amid the hubbub surrounding a bevy of proposed trans-Atlantic stock exchange mergers, a faint Antipodean wail reminds that another tie-up also is in the works, and it's not going so well. Executives at Singapore Exchange Ltd. (SGX) and ...